Hanging on a String: Unfinished
by Tortoro15
Summary: Our favorite leech-sucking villain is back to torment.. Ben? UNFINISHED.


**Hanging on a String: Unfinished**

Ben sighed as he fell onto his bed, his eyes completely tired and unable to even peak at anything. He had a arduous day, complete with tons of school work and a large amount time patrolling the city. He wasn't even able to recall when was the last time he had a decent meal that wasn't Mr. Smoothy's.

He hadn't had a proper sleep last night, since he was out with Kevin all night til 5 in the morning. Gwen had returned home, since she had a test the next day. And of course being the hero he was, he had to stay all night with her boyfriend watching the city.

He groaned at the small bruises now throbbing around his body. Fighting the Forever Knights was a complete pain. Didn't they know he had to live a life too? He didn't have all the time in the world to fight and train for defeating them. He was still a teenager for crying out loud!

He was especially surprised that his parents didn't get onto him being late. He was constantly late for everything these days.. even for Julie. He hadn't texted her for days.. probably the last time he contacted her was last week. And his grades had slipped tremendously. Now he was currently earning low B-'s which wasn't going to pass by his parents forever. They were going to eventually find out that he was failing and strip him of his freedom.

Being a hero was so hard.. juggling school, a hero career and a girlfriend and family was super hard.. making losing one thing was good but everything was important.. especially Julie. She was the only person that ever understood that he was a full fledged alien hero.

He huffed and covered his head with his pillow, allowing himself to fall into another sleep-deprived slumber.

* * *

He knew this was a brilliant plan. Why wouldn't it be? Tennyson had to have all the power. He was certainly the brains and the strength on Team Plumbers right? He was the person that held the trio together after all.

Lovely Gwen would suffer too. With the loss of her cousin, how would she be able to track him to his whereabouts? Sure she could try and locate him with her Anodite powers but that wouldn't forever. Eventually Tennyson would be untraceable and would be lost forever.

And when he returned him back? He would be completely empty. Nothing but a halo body for any body to take over. It would especially work well with one of those animation filling spells he was aware about. Just to find the right power source.. and along with the fact that Tennyson would also assist him since he was 1/4 Anodite. It would assist him perfectly with a power boost.

He smirked as he slowly creaped inside Tennyson's room. His face was smothered in the large pillow and he snored underneath it like a horse. It was a wonder that this kid was able to even get up in the morning with his regular schedule. His eyes smiled when he was able to scan him for his power. Plenty enough for the picking and with him sleeping it would be a snap.

He touched the back of the boy's neck softly and a black symbol appeared and disappeared, written in a strange Chinese-ish language but was honestly a true name of the spell. He grinned and lifted up the boy with his energy, slowly transporting him out the window.

Perfect, just as he expected.

Oh yes him. He would finally seek his needed revenge and destroy the small town of Bellwood. If it was the last thing he ever did.

Starting with Benjamin Tennyson.

Him, Darkstar.

* * *

"Have you tried to call Ben?" Kevin asked annoyed at his girlfriend's slow cousin. It was always like him to be a couple minutes late before he actually arrived in the car. He didn't care how busy Ben was, he was busy and tired as well!

She glared at him and crossed his arms. "Ben's coming. Don't rush him. You don't have the schedule he has everyday."

"What? Going off saving the world? We all do that, you know?" He countered back. "It's not like he doesn't get enough sleep. I go to sleep and wake up at the same time as he does."

Gwen glanced at him. "I don't even remember when the last time he called Julie to hang out. He's always cancelled on her cause we've forced him too. I don't blame him one bit."

"Well I do. If he doesn't come out in the next several minutes, I'll-" He started but was interrupted by her.

"No. You aren't going to do anything. Just leave him alone Kev." She finished.

A second later, Kevin started beeping on his car horn enraged. "C'mon Tennyson!"

The door opened, not revealing Ben but Sandra, Ben's mother. She hurried to the car window and glanced at them with worry. "Have either of you seen Ben?"

Gwen's expression turned to worry. "No, we haven't. We dropped him off last night though."

She turned away and glanced at his window. "It's just he's not in his room and disappeared. The only trace of him we have is his shoes on the floor. Everything else is normal."

"Is his backpack there?" Sandra nodded. Gwen glanced at her boyfriend. "We need to find Ben."

"How?" He asked simply.

She frowned and got out of the car. "We're going to track him. I'll be right back. I need to get something from his room to track him with."

A minute later Gwen was back in the car, reassuring Sandra as much as possible that they would find Ben. Kevin zoomed off and glanced at her. "What's wrong? Can you find him?"

She frowned. "I.. barely can. His mana isn't as strong as before.. I don't understand why. I should be able to track him." She pointed right. "There."

She spoke many more directions before the connection broke. She frowned and muttered 'stop' towards her boyfriend, before she got out of the car and glanced at the alleyway. "He was here. This was the last place he was before he disappeared."

"But.. how's that possible?" He asked confused. "I thought you couldn't run out of mana unless you were dead."

Her eyes clenched shut. "His body should be here unless he's been dead for more than a hour. His body should have light traces. I don't understand.. where could he have gone?"

* * *

Ben jerked awake. His eyes were blurred and his surroundings were too dark for him to see anything. He groaned and felt his stiff muscles ache in pain. God, he felt like he slept on a rock.

When his vision was clear enough, he recognized this not to be his room but a different room. He was laid against the wall, which was totally unexpected.

"Benjamin Tennyson. I was waiting for you too wake up." He froze when he knew that voice was familiar. He stared at the mask covered person, who had his arms behind his back, as if hiding something.

"Darkstar." He growled out. "What do you want now? Gwen to be your girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend? I'm beyond that stage." He shook his head, waving his hand. "No, I want to make her _suffer_. For putting me through all those foiled attempts of destroying you all and taking her delicious power. And the only way to get to her is to you."

"Why not just kidnap Kevin?" Ben rolled his eyes. "What's so valuable about me?"

He tapped his chin, as if thinking about it. "I wonder, oh savior of the _entire_ universe. Hero of galaxies. I wonder what I'd want with someone like you."

"Not really. I've been kidnapped plenty of times before. You aren't any different then Vilgax or other people." He remarked proudly. "What could you possibly do to me that I haven't been exposed too?"

"How about this?" He grinned and blasted his dark energy at Ben's chest, who tensed in pain. His fingers curled tight into fists and his eyes squeezed shut. When he finished, the teen was completely out of breath and utterly exhausted. He didn't even have the strength to even raise his head to face the leech sucker. Darkstar looked at his fingers with fascination. "You are delicious Tennyson. Who knew you had that much power? And I can't believe I never noticed you were part Anodite. I can feel the energy running down your body just like lovely Gwen."

"Don't you touch her." Ben managed to hiss out with malice.

He smirked. "And what are you going to do about it? If you haven't noticed, I haven't even restrained you to the wall and haven't covered your little alien device from activating. But you won't even be able to use it. I've drained enough energy from you to prevent you moving for a couple hours and if somehow you even manage to dial in one of those stupid aliens, you'll revert back since I know you need alot of energy to even take their forms."

He swore mentally in his head. Great, the crazy leech knew of his weakness with the omnitrix. Not something he expected him to actually even notice.

"Now if you excuse me, I'll be playing with your little friends, who by the way, have no idea where you are." Darkstar chuckled darkly. "Goodbye Tennyson, I'll be back for my next feeding later."

The door slammed close, leaving Ben submerged in darkness. He groaned and leaned back, feeling his energy slowly return but at a slow pace. He just hoped that Gwen and Kevin were able to tell something was wrong and hopefully track him to his whereabouts.

* * *

"Woah.. that's weird." Gwen mumbled, her eyes flashing pink.

"What?" Kevin asked, stopping the car.

"I just felt Ben's mana return.. He's near us.. pretty close."

"Gwen! Kevin!" A voice yelled out, rushing towards the car. There was no doubt that this wasn't Ben, since he had his jacket on and the omnitrix clearly on his wrist. Kevin and Gwen hurried out of the car. "I found something!"

"Ben?" Gwen frowned. "Where have you been? We've been looking for you for an hour! Your mom's worried sick."

He rubbed his eye. "I'm fine. I've been on the scoop of something big though. It has to do with Vilgax."

"Vilgax?" Kevin jumped. "What's up with Squid-face?"

Ben shrugged. "I heard he's plotting something big against earth again. I was checking it out and managed to find a bit of information."

"Ben." Gwen interrupted, with an annoyed face. "Do you know why I couldn't track you with your mana? You disappeared like that and then you randomly show up, exactly where we were? Something doesn't feel right."

"Why would you say that?" He crossed his arms. "I located you through your badges. Didn't you think of calling me through my omnitrix?"

"No.." She said unconvincingly. "Let me scan you then, if you're really Ben. I want to make sure you're actually telling the truth."

"..Fine." Ben mumbled and allowed Gwen to place her fingers on his head. He could feel a strange sense overfilling him, before he was thrown back against the asphalt. His eyes managed to open and glance up at Gwen, who's hands were filled with mana.

"You aren't Ben." She growled out, before blasting him. Kevin's eyes narrowed in suspicion and he absorbed the material off his green car, ready for a fight. "Darkstar."

"Darkstar?" Kevin relaxed for a moment before tensing. "When did he manage to change into Ben?"

"No time for that." Gwen replied back.

'Ben' had dodged the blast with ease before placing a hand on his chest with fake hurt. "How could you think I wasn't Ben? Of course I am!" He laughed cruelly before reverting back to his infamy form. "I should have known that little Gwendolyn wouldn't fall for that trick. Oh well, worth a shot."

"Where's Ben?"

He rolled his eyes. "Always with the demands. Why don't you say please?" A shot near his head was a clear enough warning for him. "Fine, he's in a safe place. He's keeping me satisfied with all the life energy he's providing me. He's loaded with mana, who would have figured?"

"You.. You didn't hurt him yet.. did you?" Kevin asked, a dark expression on his face.

"Of course not.. Not yet at least. If you want poor Tennyson, you'd better hurry and find him. If I manage to take up alot of his energy, he'll be begging for me to keep leeching off the remainder that he has." Darkstar clapped in amusement. "Won't that be a sight to see? He'll get addicted to the feeling of his energy disappearing and soon it'll be too late. Anodites need a large source of energy to survive off.. wouldn't you know that Gwendolyn?"

Her eyes lit pink. "If you touch him, I swear-"

"I'll do worse than that, girl. The clock is ticking.. and that reminds me.. I need more energy.. ta!" He disappeared in a dark flash.

Gwen glanced over at her boyfriend and rushed into the car. "Hurry up Kev. We need to find Ben now."

"I'm coming." He replied back, allowing the green metal to leave his body. He slid back into the drivers seat and shifted the car into drive. He slammed on the breaks and headed down the street. Gwen was studying and typing things into her badge before smiling and pointing right. Kevin did as he was told and continued to follow her directions, without a word. Their priority was to find Ben and make sure he was still alive.

* * *

Ben had slowly began to regain his energy and soon was able to wiggle his fingers. His eyes hovered over to Darkstar, who was laughing in mischief. The helmet-covered teen, touched Ben's shoulder and used his other hand to comb Ben's bangs back.

"Your noisy friends are coming Benjamin. Won't this be a nice surprise?" He chuckled before sucking the energy out of him.

His eyes widened as much as they could when he felt the same feeling of his life disappearing. He could feel his previous energy disintegrate into nothing and his eyelids droop. He could feel his skin discolor and drain of life, so as the rest of his body. He could see his fingers on the corner of his eye, which were turning into a nasty grey color and becoming wizened. He couldn't protest, he couldn't even move his lips. He felt sick.

As soon as Darkstar was done, the helmet he wore burst with energy, revealing the handsome face of Mike Morningstar. He touched his skin before grinning and making his fingers crackle with golden light. "Finally. I'm back!"

Ben's balance on the wall was weak and he slid onto the ground with a thud. His entire body felt exhausted, down to his brain. His lungs were working double and he felt like they were useless. He couldn't even manage to take a breath to save him. He could feel his heartbeat slow, which was entirely scary in his case.

Finally acknowledging the drained teen, he picked him by his shirt collar and smirked. "Thanks to you Tennyson, I'm finally whole again. This might last me a while before I have to return back to normal.. but I can just find another little girl to take the energy of. Say hi, to your friends for me." He vanished, which dropped Ben against the ground hard. His eyes were half lidded and he couldn't even register the pain that rocked his system. He couldn't feel anything..

"Ben!" A voice screamed along with footsteps. Hands wrapped around his shoulders before pulling him to a good position. Gwen hesitantly touched Ben's face before jumping back at how cold he was. "Oh my.. Ben can you hear me?" He didn't answer.

"Gwen, remember how it felt when Darkstar drained your energy? That's how he must be feeling." Kevin reminded.

She nodded but shook her head soon after. "No, he never drained me this much before. He did this on purpose, so we wouldn't be able to get to him sooner. Ben's doesn't have alot of mana left."

"You can do something.. right?!" He questioned with concern.

Gwen shook her head. "No, I can't. He doesn't have enough mana.. Darkstar would have to give it back in order to help him."

"Can't you give him some of yours?"

Her eyes sparkled with hope before nodding. "I'll try." She touched his chest and forced mana through her fingertips, straight into Ben's body. His dull green eyes moved from the sky to her face before they closed. Gwen had seen that slight movement from her cousin and freaked out when he had fallen limp. "Ben! Kevin, we need to take him somewhere!"

"Where?" He answered dumbly.

She handed him over to her boyfriend. "I don't know. The hospital? We need to help him."

"Let's bring him back home.. I don't think the hospital can do anything about this." Kevin mumbled and hurried to his car. Gwen slipped into the backseat and he carefully placed Ben's head on her lap, before shutting the door and driving off. It didn't take a minute to get off the road and back onto the highway. It was 15 minutes later did they reach at Ben's house, which seemed more depressing than before.

When Kevin opened up the backseat and waved his hands for her to help him out, she didn't make a move to help. She looked down at her feet and shut her eyes lightly. "He's dead, Kevin."

"No." He said in disbelief. "He can't be dead. I didn't hurry here and break alot of laws to here that he's dead. He can't be."

"There's no more mana in his body. It's over with. Darkstar won."

"Is he breathing?"

"Barely. It's not like it's going to help."

Kevin frowned. "You can't count Ben out now. He's done impossible things and managed to prove everyone wrong on alot of occasions. This is no different. We need to take him inside and you need to keep putting mana inside his body, got it? It's our last shot."

Gwen sniffled but reluctantly agreed, staying by Kevin's side as he slipped inside the house and deposited the pale boy on his bed. Gwen pressed her palms into Ben's chest before blasting more energy inside of him. Kevin left to find Ben's parents, who were no doubt in their rooms somewhere.

The tears on her face, fell at an unstoppable rate, giving no sign of stopping. Why would they? Ben was dead... going to die. It's not like she could do something to stop it. It was already to late to do anything.

A single tear fell off her face onto Ben's cloth covered chest, before he slowly opened his eyes and blinked. "Gwen?"

She froze and glanced down, shocked that her cousin was even moving. He still looked weak but not as before. He was gaining color in his face and his skin somehow managed to regain a slight bit of color. She choked on her sob before hugging him tightly. "Ben, you're alive!"

Ben managed to nod and squint. "I don't feel good. What happened? I can't remember anything."

"Darkstar kidnapped you."

"Kidnapped me?" He whispered and his eyes squeezed touch. "I feel.. weak."

Gwen's shoulders slumped. "It's because he was taking your mana. You're feeling a lack of mana momentarily but I'm working on bringing more into you."

"But.. I don't want mana." Ben mumbled.

"Ben, you need mana. Without it you'll die."

The teen didn't reply immediately and instead settled for staring off into space before realizing Gwen hadn't lifted her gaze from him. He turned his face away from her, nesting it into his arms. "Ok-kay. Go ahead."

But as his cousin worked on getting more mana into his body, he felt this small desire of finding Darkstar. He wasn't sure exactly why and why he felt empty but he knew it was linked with him. Was this Darkstar's plan from the start? Or was this just himself dealing with all his jumbled emotions?

Eventually Gwen removed her hands from him body and she scanned him warily. "I put enough mana into you that you won't die but it's still not your normal amount. That's your job to start replenishing it back to normal."

Ben didn't bother thanking his cousin and instead watched as she kissed him on the temple goodbye and departed from his room. Kevin had remained quiet during the gestures, the reason unknown. But he left along with Gwen, muttering a small farewell. His mother had also come in momentarily, before sighing and shutting the door to his room.

To be honest, he wasn't sure how to feel. He felt numb inside, like a small desire waiting to be fulfilled. He hadn't ever felt strong feelings such as this and it slightly scared him. What was wrong with him? Why did he want to go to Darkstar?

He tossed the idea of leaving and searching for the strange teen but he knew he didn't have the energy to get up and activate the omnitrix. Maybe after some sleep his mind would clear up.

* * *

The next morning, he was slightly surprised that he hadn't awoken up early to go to school. Realizing the events from the night before, he jerked himself from his bed. To his amazement, there was no longer anymore pain in his body. He felt.. okay.

He sat up and swung his legs to the side of the bed, pressing them into the rugged carpet. He pushed himself to his feet and held onto his nightstand, his legs feeling a bit like jelly. He took a second to get adjusted before taking his first step. It hadn't gone as he expected, which was falling to his knees and forcing himself to call his mother for assistance. He was able to walk perfectly fine, with some minor exceptions. His knees still wiggled underneath him but he was still fortunate enough to move on his own. At least Darkstar didn't do that much damage to his basic motor skills.

He hobbled towards the door, smiling when his fingers touched the cool metal. He twisted it and pulled it open, glancing through the small peephole for any signs of life. Seeing none, he cautiously walked out into the hallway. He softly thanked his parents, who hadn't bought a house with stairs. His mother had said, anybody could get hurt falling off them so it seemed like a hazard to her and her family. Who knew she could be so right?

When he arrived at the kitchen, he found a small yellow note, which had been posted on the counter for him. It was his mother's familiar handwriting that made him softly smile.

_Went to the store to get some groceries. Will be back soon. -Sandra_

Ben laughed at the end of the note where she had written her name. She still wasn't over him calling her mom. She wanted to treat him like an adult like he had earned it somehow. But he knew he would never stop calling his parents by mom and dad.

He glanced around before he felt an insane tug of energy forcing him to collapse. He breathed heavily and wrapped his arm around his midsection. His head rose as he tried to calm his wild emotions. What was that?

He had the slightest idea of calling his overcaring cousin to help him but he honestly didn't want to see her. She knew she would call him crazy and stop him if he told her he needed to find Darkstar. No doubt he had something involved in his current condition.

He found the keys to his car on the table before grabbing it and carefully bolting out the door.

* * *

He was too smart to be outsmarted. Lovely Gwen had nothing on him and she couldn't stop what she desperately didn't want to happen. It was inevitable to stop anyway.

So it wasn't much of a surprise when the doors to the warehouse were imploded to the point of breaking off their hinges. He silently chuckled to himself as he heard the murmuring of anger echo the empty depository.

"Darkstar! I know you're in here. No reason on hiding!" Ben shouted, currently in his Swampfire form. He glanced around suspiciously at every single shadow, his hands lit with toxic fire. He jumped out of his skin when he heard a ruckus from the other end of the building, which was no doubt where the infamous teen was. "Come out!"

"As you wish." A foot was the first to appear from the shadows. He wore his metal mask once more to cover his hideous face. His hands were behind his back, almost tauntingly. "What have you come for? Is this not what you wanted? Freedom?"

The fire dissipated from his muddy green fingers, flashing back into his human form. "You know that's not why I've come. I know you still have control over me or something. I want you to stop, now."

Darkstar put a hand on his chest in offense. "Why would I ever want to touch you Benjamin? You know I only want Gwen to suffer. Not you."

"Well I'm not dumb enough to know that the reason you targeted me was to get to her. Target the thing that makes her who she is, right?" Ben remarked.

A dark chuckle. "Smart boy."

The tone of the voice following an pregnant pause completely threw Ben off. He wasn't prepared for the older teen to levitate him and throw him against metal poles. Darkstar approached him and grabbed his neck, his eyes glowing menacingly.

"You didn't come to talk. You wanted to know about the energy drains you've been feeling regularly." He grinned. "I've been told by my other female clients that the feeling of the drains get _highly_ addictive. Almost bypassing the point of regular humans using them like drugs. It makes you _slowly_ lose your sanity, your sense of being. It eventually leaves you to be an empty shell of your past self, am I right?"

Ben didn't have the words to answer. He had been getting addicted to the feeling of losing his precious life energy? How.. That didn't make much sense. But he knew Darkstar was completely right.. that's why he had wanted to come. To feel his energy being absorbed willingly by him. To feel.. numb.

Darkstar took the silence of his newest meal as a yes and pressed down on his chest, absorbing enough energy to keep them both satisfied for a while. He didn't expect the teen underneath him to fight and he was right. He could feel Ben willingly give himself up.

When he was done, he rose from Ben's body. He could feel the pure energy run down his fingers, like butterflies when your nervous. He could feel his skin regenerate itself underneath the mask and he complied with his mental wish, by taking it off. His skin glowed like the sun and he flew up into the sky with ease. He was back!

He glanced down at Ben's slumped form, which was to be expected. He had taken enough energy to leave the teen empty for a couple days. But by the time he came to with enough energy, he would return right back to feel the draining process again.

He supposed it would be 'kind' to return him back home. After all, this wasn't suppose to be revealed just yet to Gwen and her little delinquent boyfriend. They would find out in time.

The boy was surprisingly lighter than he had expected. Carrying him wasn't too hard except for the fact that he had brought his car along. That meant he had to return him and his vehicle back to his house before any of his folks realized he had went missing.

Great.

* * *

Sandra had just pulled into her driveway, shutting off the engine. She jumped out of the car, grabbing the small amount of plastic bags in the passenger seat. When she arrived inside, she dumped the groceries on the floor in the kitchen and looked at her note she had placed down.

The note hadn't been moved from it's previous spot so Sandra had to assume that her son hadn't read her message yet. That was fine.. she was already home anyway.

She decided to sneak a peek on her son and softly crept into the dimly lit hallway. Her son's door was ajar and she placed her eye inside to see.

She could match the chocolate brown hair her son had on his pillow along with the thick blanket covering the rest of his body. Soft snoring could be heard from him also.

Sandra didn't sense anything to be wrong and returned back to the kitchen to put away the groceries.

Darkstar came out of his hiding spot, which was the closet and narrowed his eyes at where his mother had been. Best to keep this hush. He slyly smiled at Ben's unconscious form and vanished out the window.

* * *

"I'm sure leaving Ben at his house is perfectly safe." Gwen argued, crossing her arms over her chest. The nerve of Kevin asking her that! Of course Ben was safe in his own house!  


Kevin frowned. "I know you may think Ben's safe in his house but what's stopping Darkstar from busting into your house and catching Ben again? He did that the last time you know. I think we need to put Ben somewhere safe; _away_ from him."

She huffed. "No, I'm sure Sandra and Carl have Ben under their eye. Plus, we've got to go look for him and give him a piece of our minds. If Ben was able to keep his own, he would of called us to see what was going on. We've got to do this ourselves."

"But we haven't even made any progress. Darkstar's not going to stay in the same place where we saw him the last time, he's too smart to hang around his busted place. That kid's pretty spontaneous." Kevin commented, turning down the street of Ben's house.

"Yeah, he is. Now let's just hurry and see how Ben's doing so we can look for Darkstar before curfew." She mumbled.

They arrived a moment later and were invited in by Sandra, who had said something about him still being asleep.

Gwen and Kevin didn't waste a moment walking down to Ben's room and busting themselves in. Gwen was the first to notice the windows open more than usual, with the window slightly cracked open. She didn't pay much attention to it before she followed Kevin to the bed. The seventeen year old shook the smaller teen hard.

Normally Ben would mumble something about not wanting to wake up or shout in protest at how disrespectful and rude he had been awoken, but Ben didn't do anything like that. He stirred but he only glanced at them for a moment before falling asleep once more.

Gwen frowned and put her hand on Ben's shoulder before jerking her hand away. She hadn't thought her cousin would be this _cold_. He was freezing! Like he had been sleeping in a snowstorm. There was a hint of warmth in his skin but it was easily hidden by his frozen-like blood. "Ben?"

Kevin glanced at her hand. "What happened?"

"Touch him Kev. He's freezing!" The ruffian lightly touched him before pulling his hand away. "Woah, he's cold."

She nodded. "That's like impossible? It's like 75 degrees in here and his blankets thick enough to block out the cold. He shouldn't be this cold... it would give him a fever or hypothermia. But he's not neither."

"So what do we do now?"

"First we need to wake him up." She used mana to pull him up by the foot, dropping him on the floor a second later.

Ben jerked awake, his eyes wide with fear. He rolled to his feet and shot up, his hands wavering over the omnitrix. He paused when he realized Gwen and Kevin were in his room.

"What are you doing here?" He asked exasperatedly. "I was sleeping."

"Yeah we saw." Kevin chuckled.

Gwen took a step closer. "Ben, we came in and you were freezing. You were at least 70 degrees. And we tried to wake you up but you fell asleep a second later. We just wanted to make sure you were fine."

Ben frowned and grabbed his blanket from the floor. "I'm doing fine, thanks. Now can you leave, I'm too tired to deal with you."

"Ben, this is serious! You can't blow us off like that. We were just trying to help."

"I don't need your help. I'm doing just fine without you. Do you want me to get back to normal? Then letting me sleep would be perfect." He muttered before hopping into bed.

"Ben!"

"Bye."

"Ben!" Gwen seethed before yanking the sheets off his body. "Listen to me! We're trying to help you remember? You don't need to be so rude. What's gotten into you?"

She froze when she saw her cousin's eyes light up with familiar pink energy. She felt the force of gravity push her away from him, landing her outside his room along with Kevin. His teeth were clenched in anger as he approached the door. "Leave me alone!" The door slammed shut.

Gwen's eyes were wide with surprise and she glanced over at Kevin to see his reaction as well. And his own face mimicked her own. Ben.. never acted brutally. He was always kind but this.. was entirely different. This wasn't her cousin.

She glanced over to Kevin, who nodded in agreement.

"Time for a road trip."

* * *

"Ah, I see."

"I.. I didn't mean too, I swear."

"I believe you Benjamin." Darkstar murmured. "But you nearly gave away our plan. They must not figure out until it's time, understood?"

Ben nodded urgently. "Yes, I promise!"

He smirked. "Have you missed the feel of me? Don't lie.. I can sense when you lie."

"Yes.. take my energy please! I want to feel.. happy." Ben whispered, his eyes squeezed shut. He couldn't stand having all this energy when Darkstar could make him feel calm and relief. It was something he hadn't felt in such a long time.

"As long as you make me happy, then I will do as you want. Now next time control yourself or you'll never feel this way again." He reminded before placing a hand on the desperate teen's shoulders before leaching the energy out of him. Ben gasped at the feeling, his eyes wide. When Darkstar was finished, Ben's mind felt cloudy. He felt.. like the weight of the universe had fallen off his shoulders. He felt so.. free.

The teen grinned, at the feeling of Ben's life energy transferring into him. He felt himself glow in golden light before it vanish. He looked at his youthful skin and touched it softly, cherishing the feel of it. He was no longer Darkstar.. but Micheal Morningstar.

When he laid his eyes back on Ben, he could see the grey skin appearing on the top of his skin. His green eyes were no longer bright and full of life, but empty and emotionless. He laid on the ground, staring out into the sunlight plowing through the small eroded cracks of the metal building.

Micheal spared him once glance before disappearing.

* * *

"Haven't you noticed that Ben just randomly disappears without anyone noticing?" Kevin asked. "He always goes somewhere and he doesn't ever tell his folks that he leaves.. he just leaves."

Gwen sighed and put her magic book down. "Fine, I admit I've seen Ben being weird. I've been trying to put the pieces together but I haven't gotten anywhere that makes any sense. I've come up with a theory that Ben lost so much mana, his DNA or something won't let him replenish back into it's normal vitals. It's like scarred him or something."

"Not bad," He murmured tapping his chin. "But it sounds way to sketchy. Maybe this has to do with Darkstar personally. Maybe Darkstar's taking Ben's energy without anyone knowing or something."

"But what does that have to do with Ben's mysterious disappearances? None of this makes any sense." Gwen rubbed her temple. "It's not like Ben would willingly find and go to Darkstar and ask for his energy to be taken anyway. It's nonsense!"

"I don't know, Gwen. Ben's done some crazier things. This wouldn't surprise me." He paused for a moment. "And haven't you noticed that Ben's skin color is.. greyish? It looks like he's a zombie, I swear. And he gives me those looks that just creep me out." Kevin shuddered at the thought.

She frowned but smirked a second later. "How about a sneaking job? Let's go figure out where Ben goes everyday."

Kevin mimicked her smile. "This is exactly the reason why I love you."

Just as she said, they were hiding above the roof to Ben's house, the very next day. They patiently waited for Ben to leave his home and take them to the very location they wondered about everyday. And a second later, the devil walked out of the house and into his car. What was weird about it was that he had paused and glanced around as if he could sense them staring at him. But eventually he sped off and Gwen created stairs of mana to follow after him.

"Why aren't we taking my ride?" Kevin asked, slightly disappointed.

"He'll hear us and see us. This way we can follow him invisibly. Now c'mon!" She answered back, jumping onto the next series of steps.

He cursed under his breath but reluctantly followed after his slightly insane girlfriend.

* * *

Ben arrived on time, his eyes still scanning the clearing. He still had this small hunch something was following him. But maybe it was a small side effect of the draining process. Micheal hadn't explained that small fact to him just yet.

When he came into the dim warehouse, he instinctively called out. "Micheal?"

"Of course I'm here Benjamin. Where else could I possibly be?" He remarked with sarcasm. Micheal gave the teen a sly smile.

"I dunno. Draining dogs if I didn't come on time." Ben muttered tonelessly. "So we gonna do this or not? I need to get home soon, my folks are getting a little tense on where I keep disappearing that makes me look so bad. I, of course, can't tell them that I'm getting my life energy sucked out by you."

Micheal smiled. "Always so quippy even if staring at the face of death. That's a trait that I enjoy about you Tennyson."

"Well thanks. Can we just get on with it?"

"Of course."

Micheal placed his hand on Ben's shoulder and forced the delicious life energy out of him. Overtime, the process of draining had been taking it's toll on Ben's body. His skin felt old and dead, just like those girls he remembered that had gotten drained. He could feel himself getting skinnier, almost to the point of flesh and bones. He had numerous numbers of tattoos all over his arms, which had gotten difficult hiding since it was the middle of the summer and he had started to wear long sleeves over them. The worst part of the draining was he could feel himself slowly dying.. which was quite painful if Micheal forced it to be. But thankfully the teen never aimed to kill him on the spot. He wanted him for his precious mana after all.

In the distance, someone cried out in fear, which came unknown to both males below.

* * *

"Oh my God. He's.. He's been coming to Micheal to get his energy sucked out. Micheal's been leaching his energy the entire time!" Gwen sobbed, cupping her mouth.

Kevin's eyes couldn't peel themselves away from the scene of his best friend getting slowly killed by the man he hated the most. He absorbed the metal of the roof and took a metallic brown color. "We need to go down there and stop this. Micheal must have been blackmailing Ben. There's no way that's what we're really seeing."

Gwen didn't have words to reply and did as she was told.

The roof to the warehouse burst, dropping both of them to the ground. Micheal had the sense of protecting Ben and threw the teen to the wall, before protecting himself. He jumped back to see Ben before deeming him alright. He turned around, around the same time Gwen and Kevin were getting to their feet.

Kevin's hands morphed into mallets. "Let go of Ben now, and I promise not to pound you too much."

Micheal smirked, hands behind his back. "Let's not get so testy Levin. Especially not in the state poor Benjamin's in. You wouldn't want to make the situation worse."

The ruffian growled but stopped in midstep when Gwen held him back. "Kevin, stop! We don't want to hurt Ben." His mallets slowly reduced back into his original hands. "We just need to talk to him, okay? Promise me you won't do anything stupid.. please."

He gave a single nod and glared at Micheal with malice eyes.

"Now that you both are settled in, what would you both like to chat about? Some illegal deals? Profit?" His smile widened.

"You know exactly why we came. Give us Ben." Gwen calmly replied.

"And what happens if I don't want to give him up? Your little cousin's been dying to come back every single day, you know. He's been getting addicted off of me and I make him feel.. good." He chuckled darkly. "I bet even if I offered to give you back Ben.. he'd refuse."

"Yeah right!" Kevin laughed. "Ben'd never do that!"

"That's what you'd like to think, wouldn't you?" Micheal mischievously countered back before glancing behind him. "Benjamin, come here."

In the shadows, a form rose from the ground. It wobbled for a second before becoming larger towards them. In a second, a dazed zombie looking Ben appeared into the light. Gwen gasped at how.. horrendous her cousin's appearance had become. She almost swore it was someone else other than him.

"Ben?" She whispered.

Ben's glassy eyes stared into hers momentarily before dropping back onto the ground.

"Horrible, isn't it?" Micheal laughed. "Now I'm giving you too choices: 1. You leave us alone and I'll return to sucking the energy out of your _delicious_ cousin. Or 2. beg for him to come back to you, which he won't. Go ahead. Beg."

Gwen stepped forth. "Ben? I need you to snap out of whatever trance he's got you in. I've felt exactly the same thing you're feeling before. You need to fight it; I know you can!"

Her cousin didn't even spare her a glance, which slightly horrified her.

Micheal laughed in the distance. "See what I told you! I've absorbed too much of his energy for him to even consider leaving me. He's started to get addicted the draining process and I've gotten so much power from a single draining. Enough to destroy you Levin and take Gwen as my new prize." He blasted them with golden energy, which Gwen was quick to block.

She glared at Kevin. "You need to get to Ben. I'll handle Darkstar."

"You sure?"

"Hurry!" She yelled urgently.

He wasted no time, rushing towards the zombified Ben and grabbing him by the waist. He expected to here shouts of protests, but he heard no response from his best friend as he returned back to Gwen. When he glanced at Gwen expectantly, she nearly hissed at his lack of intelligence. "You need to get out of here now! I'll catch up with you."

"Last time you tried to battle him, he nearly drained you dry. I don't want that to happen again." Kevin warned with a hint of fear in his voice.

Gwen sadly smiled at him. "I promise to come. If I don't, you can come back and save me, okay?"

"Promise." Kevin solemnly mumbled before gripping Ben's body and darting outside. As he reached his car, he was quick to shove a depressed Ben in the back before locking the doors. No way was that kid getting out and returning to the leech-sucker. Just as he turned around to head back inside, he could see his girlfriend in the distance, with a force field around her. Darkstar was trailing behind her from above, with a confident arrogant smile in place.

Gwen reached Kevin and his car seconds later, gasping from the distance sprint. She held onto Kevin as he helped her into the car, himself following after.

The engine sputtered to life but he didn't have the chance to slam on the breaks. Darkstar was meters from the front of the car, preventing any quick getaways.

"You won't get far with Tennyson. He'll come crawling back to me and eventually you'll fail on protecting him. And just as a little warning, next time I have my hands on him, I won't leave a _single_ _drop_ of energy left inside him." He chuckled darkly, vanishing from view.

Gwen glanced at Kevin, eyes wide before checking over her cousin. He seemed to be in a dream like state, probably because of lowered energy levels. She slumped into her seat. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know."

* * *

The next day, the trio were cooped up in Ben's house, trying to come up with a plan on how to protect Ben. Of course, Ben wasn't participating. He had awoken that morning, looking depressed on finding out that Gwen and Kevin had figured out his secret. How.. How was he suppose to settle his cravings? He was indeed screwed now that he had 24/7 watch on. He had just decided to make time; he would eventually slip away when Gwen or Kevin made the slightest mistake. He needed to feel that feeling again.

Gwen and Kevin sat outside in the living room with Ben's parents, who had been explained the full situation of the ordeal. Sandra sat horrified that her baby boy would allow such a thing to occur but Gwen had countered it that it was a powerful craving for the numbing feeling that came with it. It was so.. relaxing and peaceful, she almost came back to Darkstar the next morning but fought herself on that thought. Thankfully, she had only taken one draining by the crazy teen and was alright. But Ben.. he had taken _several_.. more than she had imagined to cause him to be this way. He had gotten so used to the feeling of Darkstar's power, it might even block his common sense.

So they had agreed to take shifts to watch Ben. Gwen had offered to put up a magic spell that would alert her if someone unknown left or arrived the home, including Ben naturally. Kevin and Gwen would stay at Ben's house until the situation resolved itself or until Darkstar was found and returned back Ben's natural energy.

Which was no telling how long that would be.

"So we need you to watch Ben until I find the spell that's powerful enough to last for days or more." Gwen explained with a confident smile. "And Kevin's going to figure out where Darkstar went so we can put him in jail. Right Kev?"

The ruffian grinned mischievously. "That's an alternative to the plan but yeah. We'll make sure that scumbag doesn't mess with the Tennysons again."

Ben heard them talk from the hallway, his green eyes dark. If Kevin found Micheal before he did.. there was no telling what he'd do! Kevin and Micheal had never been on the 'best' of terms; fighting for Gwen's affection and then Charmcaster's. It wasn't a good rivalry to be caught in the middle of.

But Micheal was the only person that could make him feel.. sane.

Maybe he was hallucinating, but all he really wanted was for Micheal to be fine and help him. He just wanted to feel okay.

Gwen hadn't felt the full feeling that he had. At first all he had felt was pain. Painful electrifying sensations, he had sworn he would of died in the spot.. but then he felt the aftershocks and it felt.. breathtaking. It was something nobody could give him other than Micheal..

Did he have an attraction to the teen? Yes, but not an affectionate which would cause him to mystically fall in love with him. He wasn't sure how to describe it other than that.

Ben's eyes narrowed as he spun around and darted to his room without another thought. When he arrived, he glanced around for any means of escape. The windows were of course sealed shut from the outside, which Kevin had been proud to inform him of. There was no way Ben was slipping through his fingers again. He had also been glad to install a cuff around the omnitrix, preventing him of transforming into any alien smart enough to find another way out.

Was he stuck? Absolutely.

He glanced at the ceiling in hopelessness only to pause at the medium sized vent. An idea sprung in his mind and he grinned from ear to ear.

'We'll see who's stuck here now.'

* * *

I know this is totally unfinished. I just lost the energy and ideas to continue this story. Sorry if I managed to land you all on a 'cliff hanger'. If anyone would like to adopt it, you can PM me for permission. Thank you all for supporting me and sorry once again!

~Tortoro15


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